Thread: Grease Temperature

Learned something reading this post. Thank you for your input. I need to get one of them probe style thermometers.

When I used my Presto Fry Daddy I found that if I dropped two fillets into the hot oil the oil temp would drop by 10 to 15 deg F. The small fry daddy has the heating element in the bottom on the base and there is only 1200 Watts of power. So the oil temp will drop pretty much when the fillets hit the oil. I start out with the oil heated to 375 and it will at time drop down to 350F. If I were to put in more than a few fillets it would drop even lower. And after the bottom of the fry daddy gets covered with breading it takes even longer to heat the oil back up to 375. After a few batches of fillets there is so much breading covering the bottom that I can't get the oil above 365 deg F. I have to use clean oil of filter the breading out of the oil and start over.

It takes about 15 minutes to heat 4 cups of peanut oil to 375 F. And after I pull some fillets out of the oil it takes another 5 minutes to get the oil back up to 375F.

Now last night I cooked some fillets and used the stove and a frying pan. I didn't measure the temp but it was pretty darn hot. The first batch came out great. I used fresh oil and there was no breading mix on the bottom of the frying pan. So the oil heated up quickly. I use med hi heat setting on the electric burner. I cooked the fillets for three minutes on each side and they were cooked thoroughly. I had enough for two fish sandwitches and ate a few extra fillets on the side. I still had enough fillets left over to heat back up to make two more fish sandwitches for lunch today. I cooked up three batches of fillets last night. The last batch was burned as I think the oil got too hot. Even though I took them out of the hot oil before they cooked for 3 minutes per side they still were not cooked thoroughly. Key to cooking is definately getting the oil temp just right.


I did some research on the Presto GrandPappy and found that it holds more oil and the heating element is rated at 1500 watts. My next door neighbor has the Presto Grand Pappy frier and we have cooked crappie fillets in it and they came out great. Since it holds more oil and has more power it cooks the fillets better. IMHO.

Bottom line is get the oil to 375 deg F and keep it there for the entire 4 to 6 minutes for each batch of fish fillets.

BTW. The candy thermometer is marked for cooking different types of meat. Fish is marked at 375 Deg F. So that is why I used that temp. Also the Presto Fry Daddy automatically maintains the oil at 375 deg F. It won't heat the oil much more than 375 deg F. But like I said after the oil gets filled with breading the oil temp can't heat back up to 375 F.

I like to make sure that I have a lot of breading on my fillets so I get a lot of breading falling off the fillets in the FryDaddy.


Now if you are cooking with gas heat the setup will be much different. I have not cooked fish using gas very much so I don't know how that works.